Hoshin Kanri is More than Diagrams

“Jaded Julie, now that you have learned what PD and PM matrices look like, should we learn how they are used to guide our actions?”

“Well, Curmudge, what else can a captive audience say but ‘yes’?”

“I appreciate your enthusiasm. Did you know that in the world of Hoshin Kanri there are two kinds of time, Discretionary Time and Ready-to-Serve (RTS) Time?”

“At least I understand discretionary time. That’s the five minutes left in the day after I get home from work, feed the family, and put the kids to bed. Does ready-to-serve time apply to me? I’m a nurse, not a waitress.”

“It’s only a term, Julie. Remember that tackling isn’t the job of an offensive tackle. Actually, most of your shift would be considered ready-to-serve time. It’s the time you devote to your daily required processes like patient care and compliance-required recordkeeping. Duties performed during RTS time are those required for the hospital to stay in business; they can’t be put aside in favor of another activity. Two- or three-day process-improvement events that don’t require resources from outside your department would also be RTS.”

“So what does RTS time have to do with Hoshin Kanri?”

“RTS and discretionary time are complementary. They add up to one’s whole working day. People with significant discretionary time are managers, directors, and members of corporate departments like Information Systems, Marketing, and the Kaizen Promotion Office (KPO).”

“I presume, Curmudge, that those folks shouldn’t use their discretionary time standing around talking about the Badgers and the Packers.”

“They would do so at their peril, Julie. Their discretionary time, also called ‘deployable time,’ should be used to work on the projects shown on Hoshin Kanri PM and PD2 matrices. Ideally, everyone should try to make their RTS activities more efficient—perhaps using Lean tools—so that their RTS time decreases and their discretionary time expands.”

“These days, IS and KPO staff members must be in great demand for Hoshin Kanri projects. Seems as if they might need to have 20 hours per day of discretionary time.”

“Fortunately, prioritization and allocation of resources are central features of Hoshin Kanri. Corporate hoshins and the projects supporting them have highest priority; then business unit hoshins and finally department hoshins at the low end of the priority list. If a given person’s discretionary time is fully committed to a project supporting a corporate hoshin, he/she is not available to work on business unit or department projects.”

“But what if that person is absolutely essential for the lower-priority project?”

“In that case, Julie, the project—and possibly the hoshin if the project is essential to the hoshin’s success—is put in the ‘parking lot.’ In Hoshin Kanri language, the project is said to have been ‘deselected.’ It can be recovered from the parking lot and worked on after the higher priority project is completed.”

“And what if the staff person’s discretionary time is needed in two projects at the same priority level?”

“Then the appropriate directors negotiate the relative priorities of their projects. The Japanese call this process ‘playing catch ball’.”

“The words are English, Curmudge, but I bet they are pronounced with a Japanese accent.”

“That’s okay. Hoshin Kanri is their game; perhaps they anticipated that we would be using it. Now, Julie, I believe that we have covered most of the organizational elements of Hoshin Kanri, but we need to spend a moment discussing Hoshin Kanri management.”

“If you say so, Curmudge. This part is going to be easier, right?”

“Right. The PM’s and PD2’s that we have learned about are Hoshin Kanri’s visual management tools. They are posted in each team area and reviewed weekly by the hoshin leader. Problems are marked in red and are addressed immediately. This process will soon be possible electronically using QuickBase®”

“It seems that there are no hiding places in Hoshin Kanri.”

“There sure aren’t. Hoshin Kanri provides transparency, which is an essential feature of good modern management. Then every month or every other week the business unit leadership does a walk-around review of the status of local and corporate hoshins. Finally, every quarter the top management devotes a meeting to hoshin reporting and coordination. This provides company-wide accountability for all initiatives and how they drive strategies leading to achievement of organizational goals.”

“What happens if a hoshin leader’s planning matrix shows a lot of red? I understand that hoshins are described as ‘must-do, can’t-fail’ initiatives.”

“That’s true, Julie, but that means that the organization can’t fail to accomplish the hoshin. Red in the PM simply signals the need for assistance as soon as the need is apparent. That’s the beauty of Hoshin Kanri’s real-time visual management.”

“Curmudge, it also signals the need to take a break from filling my brain with Hoshin Kanri.”

“See you soon, Julie.”

Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon